The four-happy bird is also called Magpie robin. The origin of the name Sixi is that he likes to sing on the branches or outside the building when he is happy, which has attracted the attention of many people. Hence the name “Four Happy Birds”. The four-hit bird is very similar to the magpie, except that it is smaller than the magpie.

Chinese name: Sixiniao

Chinese aliases: Pig dregs, squeaks, Xinniao or Sixi

English name: Magpie robin

Binomial: Copsychus saularis

Kingdom: Animal Kingdom

Phylum: Chordate

Subphylum: Vertebrate subphylum

Class: Birds

Subclass: The subclass of today bird

Order: Passerine

Department: Section l

Distribution: Widely distributed in the Yangtze River Basin and its south, south to Hainan Island, Guangdong, Hong Kong, Guangxi, Fujian, north to Shaanxi, Henan and southeastern Gansu, west to Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and other provinces.

The most typical feature of Sixi bird is its extremely long tail, about 21 centimeters in length. People often confuse magpie with Sixi bird, the difference is Sixi bird Birds are smaller than magpies. So it is not difficult to distinguish.

Sihe bird is a small bird, the male bird is mostly black on the upper body, with white spots on the wings, and the lower body is black in the front and white in the back, which is very eye-catching. The female is gray-brown on the upper part, with white spots on the wings, and the lower part is also gray-brown at the front and white at the back. The characteristics are very obvious, and it is not difficult to identify in the wild. Similar species of magpies are significantly larger and of the same color, so it is not difficult to identify them in the wild.

The entire head and upper body of male birds, such as forehead, top of head, head side, pillow, nape, neck side, back, shoulders all the way back to tail coverts, are roughly Black with blue metallic luster. The central two pairs of tail feathers are black, the rest of the tail feathers are white, with only a little black spot at the base, and the fourth pair of outer tail feathers have black feather edges only on the inside or on the inside and outside. The two wings are dark brown, and the small, middle, secondary and inner secondary flight feathers on the wings are white outside, forming a broad white wing spot on the wings, especially when flying. The lower body chin, throat, upper chest, cheeks, neck side and head are the same color, all bright blue and black, the lower chest, abdomen and undertail coverts are white, and some flanks and undertail coverts are slightly stained with gray. Female birds are roughly similar to male birds, but the upper body is mostly black gray or dark brown gray, and the forehead, eyes, head side, cheeks, throat, and chest are dark gray or grayish brown. The rest of the underparts are white and slightly brown. Juveniles are gray-brown or dark-brown upper body, throat, breast brown or yellow-brown, with black-brown feather edges, and the rest are similar to adults. Iris brown, bill black, tarsus and toes dark brown or gray brown.

Sixibird is a small bird with a body length of 19-22 cm. It looks like a magpie, but is significantly smaller. Male birds are mostly black on the upper body, with white spots on the wings, and the lower body is black in front and white in the back, which is very eye-catching. The female is gray-brown on the upper part, with white spots on the wings, and the lower part is also gray-brown at the front and white at the back. The characteristics are very obvious, and it is not difficult to identify in the wild. Similar species of magpies are significantly larger and of the same color, so it is not difficult to identify them in the wild.

Bird's Choice

Sixi bird is a famous singing bird, so only male birds are generally raised. It is male and female and easy to identify. The male bird is mixed with black and white like a magpie. The head, neck, chest and back of the female bird are gray-black, without metallic luster, and the abdomen is dirty white. Male young birds have brown-yellow feather spots on the chest, and small coverts are mixed with ochre and white. Female juveniles have light grey spots on the chest and small compound feathers with white spots.

Characteristics of the cage

Sixibird is a medium-sized insect-eating cage bird, and it is most suitable to be raised in a thrush cage; although the northern point chin cage is smaller, the more docile Sixibird can also be used.

Feed

Sixi bird has poor ability to digest plant-based feed, so it is not suitable to feed pellets (such as eggs, rice, etc.), and should be fed with powder. The general synthetic feed is to feed Sixi Bozi material, which is very suitable for the stomach of Sixi bird and Bo young bird. Generally, powder material is a standing feed, and some insects (such as locust, oil gourd, leaf roller, yellow powder? etc.) or minced beef and mutton (stripes), and usually dried grasshoppers can be used as complementary food. Some use fresh small river prawns instead of insects.

Management and tuning

Sixi bird has a large amount of defecation and has a strange smell; it also likes a water bath, and the bottom of the cage is easily polluted. The bottom of the cage and the fecal support board (or cage pad) must be cleaned every one or two days, and the water bath is best moved to the water bath cage. Water tanks are cleaned and replaced with fresh drinking water daily. The powder in the food tank is replaced with new material every time the bottom of the cage is cleaned. During the moulting period (8 to 10 months), reduce the number of water baths, increase the proportion of protein feed (especially live insects), and supplement multiple vitamins. In the south, gauze should be covered in summer; in the north in winter, it is necessary to spend the winter indoors, and it is advisable to keep the temperature above 15 °C.

Sixi bird can also be raised on a bird stand like a chin, which is unique.